


Alone

by whooshboomtree (IttyBittyDungeonTree)



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post Elf Wars, Pre-MMZ, canon is dumb and I require Axl content, well comfort might not be the right word when it comes to these two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28056948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IttyBittyDungeonTree/pseuds/whooshboomtree
Summary: There wasn't much left in the aftermath of the Elf Wars, but Axl did stumble upon one person who was still alive. It just happened to be the last person in the world he'd ever want to spend time with.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Listen I'm aware that Axl was never mentioned in the MMZ series because of game release timing, but it's still a crying shame of wasted potential and I'm here to correct it.  
> Takes place in the same universe as a couple of my previous Axl-focused works, 'Fury' and 'Conviction'.

It was over.

It was all over, and everything was gone.

And it had all been...so fast. It felt like a blur. Dr. Weil- Omega- the Mother Elf- fighting alongside Zero again- but only for so long, before he- and before X had to-

Axl hadn’t been there when X had sealed the Mother Elf. He’d been tasked to guard the perimeter instead, to buy X time to do what he needed to do, and in a way he almost felt guiltily relieved. It had been one thing to give X a final salute and one last ‘yes sir’ and know that they’d never speak to one another again, but if he’d had to be there himself to witness it…

Truth be told, he wasn’t sure which would’ve been more difficult.

And now that it was all over, he had nothing left to do but dwell. There was very little of the world left after the war. There were some sanctuaries, he was sure, and some groups parts of society would start slowly piecing themselves back together, but he also knew it was mostly...humans left at this point. Humans that would no doubt blame Reploidkind for the mass destruction, just like always-

Wow, he mused to himself. One week and he was already turning bitter. That hadn’t taken long.

Still, he continued on, trudging through the wreckage of one of many battlefields in search of...well, he wasn’t really sure what. Survivors? Supplies? A safe place to sleep? It wasn’t as if he could go back to Headquarters- that was long destroyed. And the Maverick Hunters had been slowly dissolving anyway since the cure for the Virus was developed- X being gone would just be the final nail in the coffin.

A loud clang to his left made him jump, and he instinctively spun toward the sound with his pistol raised, letting out a sharp breath he didn’t realize he was holding when he saw that it had just been a stray piece of scrap metal sliding to the ground. Damn, he was going to be on edge for a while, wasn’t he…

Just to be sure, he cautiously approached the fallen slab of scrap, weapon at the ready in case something should jump out. After a few moments, nothing moved, and he took a few steps closer and gave the metal an experimental nudge with his toe.

Just a piece of scrap.

Again, he exhaled, trying to let some of the tension fall from his shoulders- something he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to rightly do for quite a long time. Everything was fine...there probably wasn’t anything alive or functional around for miles, at this point.

After a few moments of getting lost in thought, he shook himself and turned to carry on, scolding himself for getting so distracted. Omega and Weil may have been dealt with, but that was no excuse to let his guard down- especially not now that no one was around to watch his back, now that he was...alone.

Entirely...completely...very much alone.

Yup.

No matter how much he tried to stay focused, his mind continued to wander, and after a while he began to wonder if the long-ongoing lack of sleep was finally starting to get to him. He really needed to find a safe place to rest- soon. Very soon. The last thing he needed was for his systems to be at any less than optimal when he was traveling aimlessly through a hellscape of destruction that used to be a city and was now nothing more than ash and rubble and-

The sound was so subtle Axl barely noticed it- the softest, slightest scrape of metal on stone, and again he instinctively whipped toward the noise with his pistol raised and his finger tensed against the trigger. There was a large pile of rubble that seemed to be the source, and Axl held his ground for a moment, his scanners doing a thorough sweep of the area.

And for a moment he was pretty sure he’d been hearing things because, again, there couldn’t be anything around still sentient and functional for miles, and it was way too early to start losing his mind-

But then there it was. A blip.

A tiny one, but a blip no less.

The signal was faint- very faint. So faint that Axl was immediately convinced it couldn’t belong to anything even remotely threatening. More likely it was some poor Reploid who had gotten trapped in a nasty bit of crossfire and was on death’s door. Or a half-crushed Mechaniloid still vaguely trying to function in some capacity. Either way, something that should probably be mercifully put out of its misery.

Even still, he remained cautious as he approached the pile of scrap and rubble, poised to leap away or fire his gun at the first sign of hostility. “Hello?” he ventured after a long few moments of silence. “If you can talk, say something. I’m a-” He paused, his words faltering for a moment. “I’m here to help.”

He was met with silence, and he frowned and did another sweep, again picking up the same faint blip- staticky, almost, as if the signal was wavering in and out every few moments. “Anyone there?” he called.

Again, he heard nothing but silence in response, and he was debating just turning and moving on when he heard another noise- something that he could only describe as somewhere between a grunt and a strangled breath. “Hey!” he exclaimed, quickly closing the distance and crouching down to try to get a look behind the pile of rubble. “Hey, are you okay? I’m-” He trailed off, whatever he was about to say catching in his throat and his mouth hanging open.

That...

That wasn’t what he’d expected to see at all.

He’d expected a body, to be sure, and he’d expected grievous injury, and...well, this Reploid still had _most_ of his body for what that was worth. Said body had seen better days though, his limbs- minus the left arm, which was missing entirely- twisted and mangled, his stomach torn open to reveal a large patch of exposed wiring and sparking circuitry, and there was so much coolant on his half-crushed face that Axl would’ve been surprised if he could even see. He looked a far, far cry from the smug, unwaveringly confident Reploid Axl had known all those years ago…

And yet he was also unmistakably the source of that blip and he was _alive_.

“Lu...Lumine?” Axl managed to stutter out, his voice breaking slightly. When he didn’t receive a response, he cleared his throat and tried again, his core beginning to race in his chest. “Lumine?” he repeated, a little louder this time.

There was another achingly long pause, and then Lumine’s visible eye fluttered, the color flickering between grey static and familiar honey-gold for a moment before managing to focus in Axl’s general direction. “You...still alive over there?” Axl asked softly.

Lumine’s one visible eye blinked, and he opened his mouth and made a strained noise that caused coolant to bubble from a deep wound at the base of his throat. “E...easy,” Axl said, trying and failing to steady his voice as he took another pace closer and crouched down. “Don’t try to talk too much. You...d-damn.” He shook his head, for some reason finding a wry, shaky laugh rising in his chest. “You...really took a thrashing…”

Axl frowned, feeling as if someone had suddenly put a vice around his chest when Lumine spoke again- quiet, raspy, as if it took everything he had just to get a single word out, much less a full sentence. “It’s all...dead, Axl...it’s...all…”

His last word trailed off into a garbled crackle of static, and Axl’s frown deepened. “You’ve...been here a couple days at least, huh?” he murmured.

Lumine’s gaze briefly flicked down to the rubble pinning the lower left half of his body in place, then back up at Axl, his gaze unreadable and no further sound leaving him other than his slow, strained breaths. “Yeah,” Axl said quietly. “I figured.”

Of course.

Of course it had to be _him_.

“Of course it’d be you I’d find out here,” he said aloud. “Of all people. I lose everything that mattered and then the first person I find alive is _you_.” He drew a heavy sigh, sitting down and hugging one knee to his chest. “Talk about a cruel case of irony.”

He supposed he should probably do something. With the shape Lumine was in, it was probably no small miracle that he was still alive at all, and there was no telling how long he’d be able to stay that way. At the same time, some callous part of him wanted to simply stand up and walk away without looking back.

“I really should just go,” he continued, unsure if Lumine was listening and finding that he didn’t really care either way. “You put me through hell, you know? It’s not like I owe you anything. You shouldn’t even _be_ here, we _killed_ you. _Twice_.”

He paused, his hand balling into a fist that was so tight his knuckles began to ache. “Why the fuck did it have to be you of all people…”

For a long few moments, he closed his eyes, unsure if the feeling roiling in his stomach was grief or rage or something in between. He looked down at Lumine again, but the other Reploid was still just...staring. Just staring at him, still and silent and...waiting.

Just...waiting.

Axl slowly got to his feet, suddenly thinking that it would be far kinder to simply put Lumine out of his misery. A bullet to the processor had to be less painful than being pinned under rubble while your systems slowly shut down one by one, after all. And for that matter, it wasn’t like he had the supplies or the expertise to fix up a Reploid this damaged even if he wanted to. Hell, he didn’t even have a place to _sleep_ when it came down to it.

So why…

Why...was he still just standing here…?

“What the hell am I supposed to do?” he whispered. “All...all I’ve ever known is protecting people and all of a sudden there’s...no one left…”

No one left, he thought, looking down at the injured Reploid on the ground. The worst had happened, the world had gone to shit, and there was nothing…

“Dammit,” he mumbled, dropping into a crouch again. “Damn you to hell, you stupid bastard…”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a big fat sucker for quality LumiAxl content and no force on earth will stop me.

Waking up was...not one of the more pleasant things Lumine had experienced in his lifetime.

It wasn’t so bad at first, actually. His systems booted up rather slowly by his standards, but he supposed that was probably a good thing considering the circumstances, so he waited patiently, letting each part of him come online one at a time, checking for any major errors that he’d need to deal with before moving on to the next-

And partway through that  _ pain _ started registering with him again and he suddenly wondered if he would’ve been better off dying under a pile of rubble.

He took in a sharp breath by instinct, immediately regretting it as he felt a spasm through the upper left side of his chest. Ah- right. Right, there was still a pretty significant hole there. That was a problem.

It took a few more minutes- or longer, it was hard to tell in this state- before he could think clearly again, around which time he finally managed to bring his optical circuits online. Scratch that- optical  _ circuit _ . The other one was either outright missing or so damaged it may as well have been missing. At least the functional one was on the side of his face not covered by his hair.

He blinked rapidly, his good eye slowly bringing the world around him into focus, and he wasn’t sure what he exactly expected to see, but he was pretty sure that the smooth, transparent covering of a repair pod wasn’t on the list of possibilities. The room wasn’t familiar, but he was fairly sure he was indoors somewhere, and as he grew more coherent he managed to determine that the repair pod was properly functional and pumping a steady stream of nanites into his body. Not that nanites would do much to repair his damaged eye at this stage, or his left arm, wherever that had ended up after it had been unceremoniously removed from the rest of his body sometime last week, or really very much of the surface damage for that matter-

“You...woke up.”

Lumine started visibly, silently cursing his scanners for still being offline- not that he really could’ve done much to defend himself seeing as how moving from his current position didn’t feel like it would be near the top of his list of good ideas. Not to mention his aural circuits were operating at half their usual functionality with a painfully persistent ring so he was having trouble assessing who was even talking to-

_ Oh _ , he thought as the speaker strode closer to the pod. Right. Him.

“You really are just that hard to kill, huh,” Axl murmured, resting his palm against the outside of the pod. “I wasn’t even sure if this would be enough to keep you alive, much less...fix you. Sort of, anyway.”

‘Sort of’ seemed like an apt descriptor. Lumine blinked, debating over the merits of trying to speak for a moment before deciding his curiosity would get the better of him eventually. “Wh...where-”

That was all he managed before another spasm lanced through his chest and partway up his throat, and in a strange way it almost annoyed him to see Axl visibly flinch at the sight of the pain twisting his features. “About seventy miles underground just off the coast of Greenland,” Axl replied. “Or...what...used to be Greenland. And you probably shouldn’t talk for a while.”

Lumine narrowed his eyes- eye- searching Axl’s features for any trace of smugness and feeling an odd twinge of disappointment when he saw none. The least the damn prototype could do was look pleased with himself for getting Lumine of all people in a near-helpless situation unable to even talk back, anything besides that look of...exhausted pity.

Axl took a few steps to the left, falling silent for a few moments save for the light tapping of his fingers on the pod’s keypad. “The pod’s not locked or anything,” he said at last. “ It’ll probably be a couple more days before you’re stable though, so just...rest for now, I guess.”

Oh come on, Lumine wanted to say. Really? That was it? No gloating? No sarcasm? Not even a single quip? He couldn’t actually really  _ say _ anything right now though, so he settled for continuing to fix Axl with an unblinking stare through his one good eye, following his every move even as he turned and silently left the room.

Well this sure was a...situation, to say the least, now wasn’t it.

It would be another three days before Lumine was able to stand up.

Well, Axl thought to himself when his scanner picked up movement in one of the halls, followed soon after by the sound of slow, shuffling footsteps, ‘standing’ was probably stretching it. He’d mostly kept to himself for the past few days, only checking on the repair pod’s functionality once or twice a day and rarely offering much conversation besides a brief greeting. Not that Lumine had been particularly keen or able to  _ hold _ a conversation all things considered. Not that Axl was sure he really wanted to hold said conversation either.

Though he supposed avoiding doing just that would probably be a lot more difficult now that Lumine was somewhat functional again.

The footsteps got closer and then stopped, and still Axl didn’t move from where he sat on a sagging couch with his hands folded behind his head, idly swinging one leg back and forth as he stared up at the ceiling. “What...exactly are you doing, Axl?” Lumine’s asked- still with a hint of a rasp in his voice, but much closer to the smooth, familiar sound Axl had once known.

“Stuff,” Axl replied, shrugging but not moving his gaze from an apparently fascinating crack in the ceiling. “I take it your legs work.”

“To an extent,” Lumine said. “The repair pod has done what it can. The rest needs time and parts.”

“Mmm. Good luck finding those around here.”

“Where exactly is ‘here’?”

“I told you,” Axl said. “Seventy miles underground off the coast of Greenland. Give or take.”

“Yes, you said that, but why  _ here _ ? Is this some top-secret Maverick Hunter hideout?”

“No,” Axl said, and for just a moment, Lumine swore there was venom in his tone. “No,” he repeated, more quietly this time. “No, it’s...Red told us about this place. He told us it was somewhere to go if the worst happened. Snipe worked on the cloaking, but I wasn’t sure if it was still here. Guess he was really good at his job.” He finally looked up, blinking as if to bring his optics into focus. Lumine still looked a good bit worse for the wear, the repair pod having fixed his internal workings but done little to patch the parts of his chassis that were missing outright, but Axl chose not to comment, instead just adding, “You don’t have to just stand there.”

Lumine stared at him for a long few seconds before nodding and slowly limping his way across the room to sit down on the couch as far away from Axl as he could possibly sit. “You don’t have to stay here either,” Axl added. “Though it’s not like there’s much else out there right now.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

“Were you not listening? I literally just said there’s not much else out there and I’m not exactly a surgeon, this was the only place I could think that might have supplies. Or would you rather I have tried to take you to some human settlement that would’ve probably shot you on sight?”

“Never mind.”

Axl drew a heavy sigh, sitting up to rub idly at a barely-healed gash in his left shoulder. He wasn’t wearing the top half of his armor, Lumine realized, and under normal circumstances he would’ve thought that foolish. It also meant that Axl must’ve been quite sure of the security of this place, he mused to himself. “Is the war over then?” he asked.

There was a long silence, during which Axl screwed his eyes shut as if someone had shined a flashlight directly at his face. “Yeah,” he replied quietly. “Yeah, it’s over.”

“What happened?”

Axl turned to cast Lumine an incredulous look, and Lumine raised his remaining arm in a helpless shrug. Not even the best repair pod could just recreate an entire arm from nothing, after all. “In case it wasn’t clear, I was stuck under that collapsed bridge for the better part of a week. I may have missed a few things.”

“That was a bridge?”

“Was, at one time, yes, but not the point.”

“How the hell did you end up under a collapsed bridge?”

“Oh I don’t know, Axl, one of the millions of mechs that Weil unleashed on the planet? Or maybe it was just a Tuesday, I can’t quite recall.”

“I figured  _ that _ part, I just thought you were...I dunno, better than that or something, considering.”

“You don’t exactly look in pristine shape yourself, you know.”

“Gee, sorry, I was a little preoccupied trying to save the world and all.”

“Of course,” Lumine said with a roll of his eyes. “Never one to slack on your important heroic Maverick Hunter business, are you.”

“Don’t  _ go there _ , Lumine,” Axl snapped, and Lumine almost jumped at the sudden change in his tone. Even so, the tension in Axl’s shoulders seemed to fall away as quickly as it had come, and he shook his head and got to his feet. “Just...we won. That’s all that matters.”

He turned and started trudging out of the room, pausing in the doorway and drawing another sigh. “Like I was saying, you don’t have to stay here. But you’ll have to teleport out unless you like swimming. Have fun figuring out Snipe’s scrambler coding.”

Lumine watched him go in silence, more startled than he’d like to admit by the way Axl had snapped at him. Not that arguing was anything out of the ordinary any time they were in the same room together, but that...that had been...different.

No, something was definitely, unmistakably  _ different _ .

“I seem  _ different _ ?” Axl echoed when Lumine had voiced the thought aloud two days later. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like it means,” Lumine replied. Having nothing better to do after getting acquainted with his surroundings, he’d spent the last hour or so watching Axl repairing and fine-tuning his pistol, with painstaking slowness, as far as Lumine was concerned. “Or are you asking for a dictionary definition of ‘different’ because you can’t look it up yourself?”

Axl rolled his eyes, carefully clipping one of the gun’s power cells back into place and starting to put the casing back together. “Is it really that surprising?” he asked. “It’d be weirder if someone  _ didn’t _ change after this many years.”

“That’s not exactly what I meant.” Lumine frowned, watching as Axl snapped together the final piece of the pistol’s casing, lifted it to his cheek for a moment to check the sight, then lowered his arm and morphed the gun into a crossbow in a brief flash of light. “How many of those do you  _ own _ ?”

“A lot,” Axl replied, setting the crossbow down and beginning the process of taking it apart. “What  _ did _ you mean?”

“Hmm. I suppose…” Lumine trailed off in thought for a moment, his good eye following the quick, precise movements of Axl’s hands as he worked. “I’d say you seem more sure of yourself, but you’re right, even someone like you grows up eventually, given the circumstances.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.”

“Regardless,” Lumine went on with a wave of his hand. “That’s not exactly what I was getting at. You’ve always had a certain…” How to put this in a...polite way. “A certain...energy to everything you do.  _ Everything _ . You do.” Well. Almost polite.

“Uh-huh,” Axl replied absently, not taking his gaze away from his hands as he worked out a small kink in the crossbow’s metal track.

“Well you certainly don’t have that now,” Lumine went on, a hint of a scowl pulling at the corners of his mouth at Axl’s response- or lack thereof. “Not to mention you seem to have all but dropped your guard around me, of all people. You couldn’t exactly shoot me with that thing if I chose to attack you right now.”

“You really think I’ve only got one weapon on me at any point in time?” Axl asked. “And it’s not like you have much to gain from physically attacking me right now anyway.”

“ _ Physically _ attacking you?”

“It’s you we’re talking about here. I never put it past you of all people to push my buttons just because you can.”

“Well it’s not nearly as much fun when you don’t react to it.”

“I’d imagine not.” Axl lifted the crossbow, closing one eye to check the sight before setting it back down again with a frown and continuing to adjust the arrow track. “Besides, you’re not one to talk when it comes to people being different.”

“How so?”

Axl fell silent for a long moment, finally drawing a sigh and looking up to fix Lumine with a gaze that honestly seemed to hold little else other than  _ tired _ . “Why the hell are you still  _ here _ ?”

Well  _ that _ wasn’t exactly the response Lumine had been expecting. “Presumably because you decided to save my life instead of putting me out of my misery,” he replied. “Which seems like an odd decision on your part in and of itself.”

“I think the words you were looking for sound like ‘thank you’. And that’s not what I meant.”

“No,” Lumine said, a smirk finally curling at his lips. “No, I suppose it isn’t. It’s the irony, isn’t it?”

Axl didn’t answer, but there was no mistaking the way his hands paused for a moment before resuming their work carefully tugging the right limb of the crossbow into place. “Oh, come now,” Lumine went on. “Don’t deny it. The two of us, stuck at the end of the world with nothing but each other for company? Of all people? It has to be the universe playing some cruel trick on us.” He paused, leaning forward and resting his chin on his hand. “Which does beg the question. Why  _ am _ I still here, Axl?”

“Are you asking me to justify not killing you?” Axl murmured, his tone still unusually, almost irritatingly quiet.

“In a sense. After the things I did to you-”

“Don’t.”

“Fine. My point is, all things considered, it doesn’t exactly make a lot of sense for you to go to so much trouble to keep me alive. Unless,” Lumine added as Axl raised the crossbow to check the sight again, “you’re really that desperate for company.”

That, it seemed, was finally enough to strike a nerve, if the way Axl flinched and screwed his eyes shut was anything to go by. “Well?” Lumine prompted after a long silence had stretched between them.

After another few seconds, Axl finally lowered the crossbow with a sigh, shifting it back into a pistol in another quick flash of light. “It had to be someone like you, didn’t it,” he mumbled instead of answering.

“Someone like me being what? A Maverick?” Lumine asked with a hint of a sneer in his tone.

Axl shook his head wordlessly, and Lumine sat back with a huff, his lip twitching in irritation. “Well it’s hardly worth holding a conversation if you won’t say anything back.”

“Sorry,” Axl said quietly, getting to his feet and picking his helmet up from where he’d laid it next to the couch. “I need some air.”

“We’re seventy miles below the ocean.”

“I know. I’ll be back in a while. The teleport codes are on the console next to the repair pod. I’d tell you not to cause trouble, but…” Axl shook his head, a shaky, humorless laugh rising in his chest. “It’s not like there’s much left out there anyway.”

And once again, he turned and walked out of the room without another word, leaving Lumine staring after him in silence.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANGST ANGST ANGST god these two have such a terrible dynamic together I love it

“No!”

Axl woke from the nightmare with a jolt, scrambling to sit up and blindly reaching for the pistol that lay next to his pillow. As his systems began to come back online and quickly ascertained that he was in no danger from anything but his own memories, he slowly leaned forward to hold his head in his hands and closed his eyes, his chest heaving and his shoulders shaking with the weight of looming panic. Everything...it was all...everything was...gone…

Just...just like that...just...gone…

After a few minutes, he began to regain control of his breathing, though it did nothing to ease the tension coiling through the rest of his body. He and Lumine hadn’t spoken more than a word or two to one another in...days. Or rather, Axl had awkwardly dodged even the vaguest attempts at conversation for days. He hated the quiet all the same- quiet was when his mind wandered. Quiet was when his thoughts were oh so good at casting shadows of doubt over every moment they passed by.

Quiet was when he had dreams like _that_.

Maybe even a conversation with _him_ would be better than that.

With a grunt, he slowly got to his feet, clutching his pistol against his chest for a moment and running his palm along the barrel, taking comfort in the familiar feel of cool, smooth metal on his skin. What was he even _doing_ ? Hell, what was he _supposed_ to be doing?

There was an answer to that, he knew. It just wasn’t one he was ready to face yet.

Knowing that sleep wasn’t going to be his friend tonight either way, he quietly loped his way over to the room with the repair pod, where he presumed Lumine had been staying for lack of anywhere else to stay. To his surprise considering the time of night, however, he found Lumine sitting up with his back to the doorway, fidgeting with something on his lap. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Axl asked, hoping Lumine didn’t notice the slight hoarseness in his voice.

“Shouldn’t you?” Lumine replied without skipping a beat.

“Yeah. Probably, I guess.” Axl hesitated for a moment before slowly coming closer, suddenly unsure of what he was really trying to accomplish.

The only light in the room came from the glow of the console, but even that was enough for Axl to make out the piece of metal and wiring on Lumine’s lap. “What’s that for?” he asked quietly, deliberately choosing not to sit down on the other Reploid’s blind side.

“I don’t particularly fancy living the rest of my life with only one arm. Or one eye,” Lumine added, raising a hand to scratch idly at said eye. “But finding the right parts to make a functioning optical circuit is…”

“A crapshoot?”

“At best.”

“Yeah. I’m gonna have trouble finding the right parts for my guns too if one of them gets badly damaged. There’s not a lot left out there that isn’t half-evaporated.”

“Mm.”

Axl sighed, looking up at the console screen and tilting his head slightly. “Are those old images?” he asked, watching the gently drifting view of some distant star system he couldn’t identify. “I figured Weil probably nuked quite a few satellites.”

“They’re old,” Lumine confirmed. “Space is just...calming to me, I suppose.”

“Oh. That makes sense I guess.”

“What doesn’t make sense,” Lumine said, “is why you came to talk to me. In the middle of the night, no less.”

Axl sighed, unable to help a roll of his eyes. “Is it not that obvious how desperately lonely I am at this point, you Asimov-damned jackass?”

“It’s obvious. I was just wondering how long it would take you to say it out loud.”

“Stupid,” Axl mumbled, not quite energetic enough for a proper insult. What was even the point of this? The last thing he wanted was pity from Lumine, of all people (though in truth he was close to ninety-eight percent sure that feeling, at least, was mutual). At the same time, keeping everything to himself certainly hadn’t been helping him feel any better. How much worse could Lumine possibly make it?

As soon as he thought as much, he shook his head, wondering if he was really so desperate for social interaction that his mind was starting to wander down paths like _that_.

“So are you ever going to tell me what happened?” Lumine asked.

Axl jumped, startled from his thoughts, and it took a long moment before he was able to loosen his grip on his pistol. “Why are you so curious?” he asked, keeping his gaze focused on his lap instead of on the other Reploid.

“I don’t know, because I’m stuck at the end of the world with nothing better to do than talk to you?”

“I told you, no one’s making you stay here.”

“I don’t think whoever is left out there would be particularly happy to see me, in particular, after everything that just happened.”

“So...you’re hiding.”

“And you’re not?”

“Shut up.”

“Asimov’s sake, Axl, if you want to talk, then stop dodging the question and talk. Otherwise go sulk somewhere else.”

Axl scowled, his chest tightening with a sudden coil of rage for a moment before he loosened himself up again with a long sigh. “Fine,” he said. “X and Zero beat Omega. Weil’s been taken care of. So has Dark Elf. So...we won.”

“Clearly at a cost, based on the way you’ve been acting.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Axl mumbled. Was it even worth saying it? Lumine was bound to find out eventually one way or another. He just wasn’t sure if he would be able to withstand the gloating. “Zero was badly injured in the fight with Omega. I mean...really bad. He’s...in stasis again. I don’t know for how long.”

“And X?”

Axl shook his head, closing his eyes and hugging his knees to his chest. “Well, someone had to seal the Dark Elf,” he whispered.

He was met with a long silence, and he shut his eyes a little tighter, bracing himself as he heard Lumine shift in place slightly. Here it came. The stupid bastard’s smug satisfaction over finally being rid of the two inferior old-model units. The taunting over how much Axl had cared for them. Of how he hadn’t been able to-

“I’m sorry, Axl.”

Axl looked up with a start, but Lumine’s gaze was still fixed on the gently drifting star system on the monitor, his expression as unreadable as ever. “You’re... _sorry_?” Axl echoed when Lumine didn’t say anything else. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Did you want me to say something else?”

“No, but you can’t tell me you actually feel _bad_ . Last time you met X and Zero you tried to kill them. And me, for that matter. And now suddenly you’re sympathetic to the fact that they’re not around any more? What the hell makes you think I’d believe _that_?”

This time it was Lumine’s turn to close his good eye, his shoulders rising and falling as he let out a quiet sigh. “You’re the one who said it would be weird if someone didn’t change in all this time,” he replied after a moment. “Or were you specifically excluding me in your definition of ‘someone’?”

“I mean, in fairness, you are kind of weird.”

“Shut it, prototype.”

Axl winced slightly, but at the same time it was almost comforting to hear a familiar note of venom in Lumine’s tone. Certainly more familiar than...whatever that ‘I’m sorry’ had been. “So what,” Axl said, leaning his weight back on his hands and raising an eyebrow. “Am I supposed to believe you feel bad for me? Because the last thing I want is your pity.”

“Which is clearly why you came to have a heart to heart with me at three in the morning instead of sleeping.”

“No, I did that because I’m restless and desperate to hear something besides the sound of my own voice. Really desperate, apparently.”

“Funny. You’ve always seemed to adore the sound of your own voice even when nothing particularly important is coming out.”

“You’re one to talk.”

Lumine actually laughed at that, a short, sharp laugh that held neither joy nor humor in the slightest. “Tell me something,” he said, finally getting to his feet, and Axl instinctively did the same. “What exactly are you trying to accomplish here? You say you don’t want my sympathy, yet you keep crawling right back to me with that pathetic look on your face. You’re also perfectly capable of leaving anytime you please, and unlike me, the world would probably hail you as a hero. Which brings me to my point: why are you still _here_ , Axl?”

Axl couldn’t bring himself to come up with an answer for that one. At least not one he was willing to say out loud- and certainly not one he was willing to say out loud to Lumine of all people. “What then?” Lumine said when Axl simply averted his gaze and didn’t speak. “Is that it? Or are you just going to turn and walk away again the moment you’re faced with a question you don’t like the answer to?”

“Shut _up_ , Lumine.”

“Oh, pardon me for trying to indulge in your desperate need for conversation,” Lumine sneered. “If you want to talk, talk. If not, I’ve got better things to do than watch you wallow in self-pity.”

He reached out as if to give Axl a shove, and Axl immediately jerked to attention and caught the other Reploid’s arm, his grip on Lumine’s wrist tightening like a vice. “Don’t,” he whispered, his gaze suddenly chillingly sharp in comparison to his previous exhaustion. “Don’t you fucking touch me, Lumine.”

Even so, Lumine held the other Reploid’s gaze steadily for a long moment before pulling his arm away, and Axl let him go without protest. “Get out of my room,” Lumine said in the flattest tone Axl had ever heard- and that was saying something when it came to Lumine of all people.

Then again, it wasn’t as if Axl particularly wanted to stay in what had apparently at some point become ‘Lumine’s room’, so he just turned and stalked out, keeping a white-knuckled grip on his pistol and feeling Lumine’s glare practically boring a hole into his back until he was out of sight.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops this chapter got long oh well

It was another four days before they spoke to one another again.

Lumine had gotten quite good at ignoring his unwanted apocalypse-mate by this point, especially since Axl had been coming and going more frequently since their last argument. All for the better, Lumine thought to himself. The more he was gone, the more Lumine didn’t have to deal with his existence.

But it was pretty hard for even Lumine to ignore the frantic yelp of, “Shit, fuck!” followed by an impressively loud crash that sounded very much like a Reploid in full armor falling on his face in the middle of the hallway. Lumine stood up and strode over to poke his head out of the doorway, unable to help the smirk that twitched at his lips when the first thing he saw was, in fact, Axl laying in a position that looked very much like he  _ had _ fallen flat on his face.

“Bad day?” Lumine asked.

Axl pushed himself up with a groan, and Lumine’s smirk faded slightly when he saw the unnatural angle of the gunner’s shoulder. “Golems,” Axl replied, gritting his teeth and lifting a hand to his shoulder. Slowly, he got to his feet, and while he looked somewhat worse for the wear, he still appeared to be mostly in one piece. “Move.”

Lumine scowled slightly at Axl’s tone, but he stepped aside regardless and allowed the other Reploid to stumble into the repair pod room. “How many?” he asked, hoping his tone didn’t betray the way the word ‘golem’ had made his synth-skin crawl.

“Four,” Axl replied, placing his palm against his bad shoulder and exhaling quietly. After a moment to brace himself, he struck the heel of his hand against the dislocated joint, jamming it back into its socket with a hiss of pain. “ _ Fuck _ . I took out three of them before the fourth got too close for comfort.”

“And they were Weil’s?”

“Pretty hard to mistake them for anything else.” Axl turned to rummage around in one of the room’s supply cabinets, making a noise of satisfaction a few moments later and pulling out a syringe of nanites, which he promptly injected into his left bicep. “I don’t think they were under anyone’s control though. Just roaming and locking on to movement.” He sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall for a moment. “Fuck, I can’t believe there’s still more of those things out there…”

The room settled into silence, broken only when Lumine piped up a minute or so later with, “That’s it?”

“What do you mean, ‘that’s it’?” Axl asked, lifting his head to fix the other Reploid with a tired glare.

“That’s it,” Lumine repeated flatly. “You’re just going to come crawling back here with your tail between your legs and feel sorry for yourself some more. Poor you, is that right?”

“Well excuse me for trying to stay alive,” Axl said, a little bit of fire returning to his glare. “I certainly don’t see you being eager to go up there and hunt the rest of those things down.”

“Oh come off it. You’re so damn pathetic, Axl.”

“You come off it.” Axl pushed himself off of the wall with a grunt, wincing at a lingering twinge in his shoulder but otherwise looking all but unfazed by his injuries. “What the hell makes you think you know what’s going through my head right now?”

“Please,” Lumine said with a dry, humorless laugh. “I know very well the way your mind works. Probably even better than-”

“Don’t  _ go there _ , Lumine!”

“Get over yourself,” Lumine sneered, his momentary amusement dropping back into a chilling scowl. “My point still stands that having nobody around would be preferable to listening to your moaning day in and out.”

“What then, you think I should’ve stayed out there and gotten myself killed just so you don’t have to hang around me any more?” Axl asked, not realizing how tightly he’d clenched his fists. “I’ve told you before, no one’s making you stay here.”

“I don’t  _ expect _ you to do anything at this point,” Lumine sighed, turning and starting to walk out of the room. “Honestly, I’ve never had a lofty opinion of the Maverick Hunters, but I didn’t realize they enlisted whining cowards.”

“The  _ fuck _ did you just call me?!” Axl shouted, and Lumine didn’t even flinch at the sudden raise in volume. “Why don’t you turn around and say that to my face!”

Lumine stopped in the doorway, staying still for a long moment before turning around and pacing back across the room to stand directly in front of the other Reploid. “Is that what you want?” he asked, and in any other circumstance the eerily quiet calm of his voice would’ve sent a pang of fear through Axl’s core. “Is that  _ really _ what you want, prototype?”

Axl clenched his fists even tighter, his hands beginning to shake with the weight of the heat welling in his chest. Fire like he hadn’t felt in weeks.  _ Hate _ like he hadn’t felt in as long as he could remember. “You are really,  _ really _ pushing it right now,” he practically hissed. “And for the last time,  _ don’t _ . Call me. A  _ prototype _ .”

Lumine scoffed, fixing Axl with a smirk that made his hatred burn even hotter. “And what are you going to do about it?” he asked. “ _ Prototype _ .”

He punctuated the last word by reaching forward to poke the other Reploid in the chest, and Axl’s barely-restrained temper finally snapped.

Just like he had four days ago, he reflexively made a grab for Lumine’s wrist, but this time Lumine was prepared enough to pull his hand away almost immediately. “Back the fuck off!” Axl shouted, lunging forward to give Lumine a shove, which the other Reploid quickly sidestepped.

“Or what?” Lumine taunted. He took another sharp step to the side when Axl attempted to shove him again, reaching out to give the back of the other Reploid’s head a light swat as he moved. “What’s the worst someone like you could really do to me, hmm?”

“You  _ really _ wanna know the answer to that?!” Axl asked, spinning around with a glare that practically spat poison.

“Oh, believe me,” Lumine said, his smirk only growing when Axl gritted his teeth. “I would  _ love _ to know the answer to that.”

Axl wasn’t entirely sure what happened next, but he was sure that he saw red in a way he’d never seen it before. Everything seemed to move in a blur, and he was vaguely aware of the pain in his shoulder worsening, and an impact against his stomach that hardly fazed him, and he was pretty sure someone was screaming and maybe it was him but what did it really matter because the glass bottle that had been holding him together for the past few weeks finally  _ shattered _ -

And Lumine had to admit, he hadn’t entirely been prepared for how much faster Axl had gotten since the last time they fought.

He managed to get in one solid kick before he suddenly found that his feet were being swept out from under him, and he didn’t even have time to start picking himself up off the ground before Axl was landing heavily on his stomach and wrenching his arm to one side so hard that he was fairly certain he felt several artificial tendons snap. He opened his mouth for another smart remark right as Axl’s fist struck the underside of his jaw, the force of the blow causing the back of his head to collide sharply with the metal floor.

It took several moments of blinking before he was able to bring his single functioning optical circuit back online, and even someone as stoic as Lumine couldn’t help but recoil slightly at the look of sheer  _ rage _ on Axl’s normally cheery features. “And just what do you intend to do now?” he asked, recovering rather quickly and pouring all of his hatred at being pinned- by  _ Axl _ of all people- into a fierce scowl. “Wring my neck? Would that make you feel  _ better _ ?”

Axl didn’t answer except to somehow channel even more fury into his expression, his teeth gritted and his chest heaving with every strained breath. “Or would you rather just shoot me?” Lumine asked, his gaze darting to the pistol in Axl’s hand, which he hadn’t even noticed until now. Damn, he  _ had _ gotten better at this. “Would that be easier for you?”

“Shut up,” Axl whispered hoarsely. “Just...just shut up…”

“But then you’d be all alone, wouldn’t you?” Lumine went on. “Don’t even have it in you to handle a banged-up Maverick like me? Imagine how different things would’ve been if you were  _ actually _ good at your job. Imagine how many people would still-”

“Fucking  _ shut up _ !”

Axl swung, the back of his pistol striking Lumine’s cheek so hard he was sure he heard something snap. “What the fuck is  _ wrong _ with you?!” he cried, his voice beginning to crack- from grief, guilt, anger, some combination, he wasn’t even sure any more. “Is there anything even remotely compassionate in your busted up fucking body?! What would you even know about losing somebody?! What is  _ wrong _ with you?!”

“You shut up!” Lumine snapped back, suddenly raising his voice and making an attempt to sit up, though Axl had no trouble keeping him pinned at this point. “What do you even know about me?! You don’t know  _ anything _ about me!”

Axl was already midway into deciding to hit him again when he said that. But as he reared back for another swing, something about Lumine’s tone caused him to hesitate for a moment. It was so brief- just an instant, a second, where he swore that, for the first time in all the time they’d known each other, Lumine actually sounded  _ distraught _ .

And he didn’t want to hear that. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. He  _ wanted _ Lumine to get mad. He almost  _ wanted _ Lumine to keep pushing him and keep picking at his insecurities because at least then he had an  _ excuse _ . He had an excuse to get mad and lash out and use the other Reploid as an outlet for everything he’d been bottling up-

And that moment’s hesitation was just long enough for Axl to remember where he was and what he was doing, and the unchecked anger on his features slowly began to melt away.

“You think you’re the only one who’s lost people in this war?” Lumine went on, and Axl swore that there was the slightest shake in his voice. “Don’t you dare presume to know what’s going through my head. Don’t you  _ dare _ .”

“I…” Axl’s attempt to speak faltered, and he suddenly found himself unsure if he should back off or apologize or get angry all over again. He didn’t let go, all the same, the anger on Lumine’s face too chillingly familiar to trust him not to lash out given the chance.

After another few moments, he let his head drop and closed his eyes, his breaths still coming in shaky, uneven gasps. “Why,” he whispered. “Why did it have to be  _ you _ , dammit…”

“In case it wasn’t clear, I’m not exactly thrilled to be stuck at the end of the world with you of all people either.”

“I just…” Axl shook his head, fighting desperately to hold back the heat threatening to well in his eyes. “I just...so many people...so many people died, and I...I just wanted...to feel like I could protect somebody…”

“Is that why you saved me? So I could be some morality pet to make you feel marginally better about yourself?”

Axl fell silent for a few moments, finally letting out a long, shuddering sigh and loosening his hold on Lumine’s wrist. “Maybe a little,” he admitted softly. “But...for as much as I hate you, I couldn’t just watch you suffer and not do anything about it.”

He sat back, taking his helmet off and running his fingers through his hair for a moment before leaning forward to rest his head in his hands. “So now what?” Lumine asked, sitting up with a quiet grunt of pain. “Us being us, we could throw jabs at each other for the next ten years and never make any headway.”

“Yeah, we probably could,” Axl agreed quietly. “And hell if I know. If I did, I wouldn’t be here.” He paused, frowning and hunching his shoulders slightly. “I...think I lost my temper a little.”

“A little?”

“Don’t start this again.” Axl shook his head, finally sitting up and pushing his hair out of his eyes. “I feel like I need to sit and think some stuff through.”

“Lovely. Then go and do your thinking somewhere else. I’d like to fix what you broke in peace and quiet, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah. That’s fair.” Axl slowly got to his feet, scooping up his helmet and finding that he couldn’t bring himself to meet Lumine’s gaze. He hesitated for a moment, trying to think of something else to say, and then finally decided it was wiser to just keep his mouth shut as he ambled away to the room with the sagging couch, where he sat and curled his knees to his chest and thought.

And thought.

And  _ thought _ .

And finally,  _ finally _ allowed himself to answer the question that had been dragging at his core like a lead weight.

He wasn’t sure how long he was there before he heard footsteps approaching- hours, a day, longer, heck, he wasn’t even sure if it really mattered all things considered. “I adjusted a few of the cloaking signals,” came Lumine’s voice, considerably quieter and more like his usual unflinchingly calm self. “Just a few minor improvements. The codes are on the console.”

“Mm. I’ll take a look later,” Axl said, neither stirring nor opening his eyes. “Is your jaw okay?”

“It’s fine.”

A long silence stretched between them, and Lumine was just about to turn and leave when Axl piped up with a soft, “You were right.”

“Hmm?”

“You were right,” Axl repeated, opening his eyes to gaze down at the floor. “About a lot of things. About Reploids and humanity changing.” He frowned, seeming to curl in on himself slightly. “About why I’ve been staying here.”

“Really.” Lumine leaned his weight to one side, resting his shoulder against the doorframe. “I didn’t think I’d ever see the day when you admitted I was  _ right _ about something.”

He was fully prepared for Axl to make some smart remark about not rubbing it in, but all Axl did was shrug slightly. “It’s hard to really listen to someone when all you can think about is survival. And I still don’t agree on the whole inferior obsolete tech thing. I mean...tech or not, we were still built as people.” He paused, blinking and lifting his head to fix Lumine with a curious look. “Is that weird for you? Being around long enough to be considered an old model Reploid?”

Surprised crossed Lumine’s features for a moment before fading into a wry smile, and he shook his head with a quiet chuckle. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“How did you even survive, anyway?” Axl asked, tilting his head. “X and Zero ripped your code down to binary and then some.”

“And then some indeed,” Lumine said. “Not a pleasant experience, I might add. But to answer your question, let’s just say I’m the type to make a contingency plan for every contingency plan and leave it at that.”

“I’m not sure I want to know any more detail than that anyway.”

“Probably not.”

Axl sat back, rubbing the back of his neck and pausing to work out a twinge in his shoulder. “The program Zero made,” he said. “The one that...got you out of me. It ended up being the basis for the vaccine.”

“Really,” Lumine said, a hint of genuine interest in his tone. “It took some refinement, I assume.”

“Oh, plenty,” Axl said with a shrug. “X put a lot of work into it.”

“I take it he had the time after he retired?”

“Yup. That was why he took a step back from field duty. Well, that and diplomacy. When it came down to it…” Axl sighed, shaking his head. “You were right that the world was changing. And not for the better.”

Lumine tilted his head slightly, as if encouraging Axl to continue. “The definition of Maverick was...it had turned into something else,” Axl went on, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “It got twisted. The Hunters...what we did was getting twisted. I’m not saying you were right to lead a full-scale rebellion. But you  _ were _ right that something needed to change.”

He took a deep breath, getting to his feet and arching his back in a stretch. “And you were right about the way I’ve been acting lately.”

Lumine stepped aside to allow Axl through the doorway, following the other Reploid as he made his way to the repair room. “When X sealed himself, he told me…” Axl’s voice trailed off for a moment while he brought up the console. “He told me to take care of things for him out there. I think it’s time I made good on that.”

“So you’re going back out there,” Lumine said, watching Axl download the adjusted teleportation codes. “To a world where ninety percent of Reploidkind is dead, possibly more, and humanity might not even take kindly to your existence.”

“Well…” Axl turned, and for the first time in weeks, there was a genuine albeit tired smile on his face. “Someone’s gotta protect what’s left, don’cha think?”

Lumine blinked, unable to hide the surprise in his expression for a few moments before he simply sighed and shook his head. “Naive and optimistic as ever, aren’t you.”

“Not that naive,” Axl chuckled. “I’m sure plenty of people wouldn’t exactly be happy to see me, but that’s fine. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve worked from the shadows.”

Lumine fixed him with a familiar, flat stare, and Axl’s smile faded slightly. “And I’m sorry,” he said after a moment. “I shouldn’t have taken everything out on you.”

“Yes, well,” Lumine said, averting his gaze for the briefest of moments. “It’s not that surprising. I doubt there will come a time when you and I aren’t at least somewhat at odds. That said,” he added, whatever awkwardness he’d shown quickly falling away to his usual annoyance, “don’t make a habit of punching me like that unless you want to lose an arm.”

“Fair enough,” Axl said, looking completely unfazed by the threat. “I’ll keep an eye out for parts, by the way. For your arm and all. And I’ll probably be around now and again when I need a safe place to lay low and rest for a bit.”

“Naturally. I don’t suppose I could be rid of you that easily.”

“Not on your life,” Axl laughed. “‘Sides, don’t play like you wouldn’t miss me.”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.” Lumine was well aware of the hurt still lingering in Axl’s gaze in spite of his smile, but there was no missing the way that familiar, energetic, absolutely infuriating determination was starting to show through again.

Even so, he found his expression softening just slightly as he watched Axl finish gathering the teleportation codes and straighten up from the console. “Don’t get yourself killed. It’s a hellscape out there, I’m sure.”

“Aw, c’mon, I’m better at this than that. Give me  _ some _ credit.” Axl turned, holding out his hand with a grin. “So...see you around, yeah?”

Lumine stared at the other Reploid for a long few moments, looking down at his hand and then up at his face and then down at his hand again. “Hmph.”

And then a smile tugged at his lips, and he lightly swatted Axl’s outstretched hand aside. “Scram,” he said simply.

Axl laughed, lifting his hand in a wave as he started to call up a teleportation signal. Truth be told, his head still felt heavy in many ways, and he knew very well that the gaping hole in his chest wasn’t going to stop aching any time soon.

But as long as he was still capable of protecting people, he was still a Maverick Hunter, and that meant he had no reason to sit on his ass and watch the world go by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have i ever mentioned that desperately angry axl is really fun to write? because BOY.  
> that's it for this one but I have more angst to come set in the same timeline because upsetting axl is apparently still one of my favorite pastimes! til then!


End file.
